Humanthology

Position: Lead Frontend Developer

In July of 2013, I left the comfort of warm Southern California to join a startup in Silicon Valley that was focusing on creating a platform that curated and highlighted the human experience. Humanthology wanted to give a soapbox to the generally unheard and foster a sense of community we seem to be falling out of touch with. I was excited to share in that vision.

Humanthology was at the forefront of the race to be the next “new age” publication platform. As lead frontend developer, I crafted and implemented a user experience befitting the modern day of multimedia.

Drawing on inspiration from meticulously tailored, beautiful articles such as Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, Pitchfork’s Daft Punk Cover Story, and Danny Brown Interview: Sky High. We set out to provide this level of content publishing to the common author, to Joe Schmoe WordPress blog operator – parallax, HTML5 video, CSS animation, image carousels, the whole kit and kaboodle! These have become intrinsic to the way we share information on the internet and no one should have a barrier to use such constructs.

We also implemented crowdfunding functionality on the platform. As an author, you could publish a story with a crowdfunding goal. When that goal was reached, the total would be split between the author and a non-profit organization of their choice, usually an organization related to the story itself.

Humanthology’s growth was overshadowed by similar platforms with larger teams and venture capital backing, specifically Medium. It remained in a nascent state until the platform was retired in 2014.